When I was in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago there was a morning where I was expecting a package to be delivered. Rather than wait in the room, my friend Jeff and I went out for breakfast and then walked down to South Street to take pictures. We were pleasantly surprised at how much there was to see in a few short blocks!
We walked south from Rittenhouse Square, one of Philadelphia's most exclusive neighborhoods, along 18th St. turned left on South St. until we got to the Whole Foods Market, then headed back towards the hotel. Along South Street we saw what was once a vital African-American neighborhood that had been largely abandoned, a neighborhood of Caribbean immigrants, public housing, and a neighborhood that was at the heights of being Williamsburgled. We also saw a whole set of incredible mosaics by a single artist, Isaiah Zagar. His work will be the subject of a future post. For now though, here are a few sights from the western end of our walk.
This photomosaic captures the flux that South St. is in. To the left is an African-American barbershop and hair-straightening salon, to the right is a hipster lounge posing as a neighborhood bar in Milwaukee, in between there's a sales office with apartment floor plans. On the far right is the first Isaiah Zagar mosaic that we saw.
hmm, not sure if it was the whole foods or not, it might have been, but there was a building that was completely covered in like bottles and mirrors and stuff. i can't remember off the top of my head. i should have taken a picture back then.
Posted by: tien | 30 March 2004 at 06:35 PM
That's it! It was across the street from Whole Foods. I'm still wading through the photos, but I should have something up soon.
Posted by: joe | 30 March 2004 at 10:27 PM